1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to seat assemblies for use within motor vehicles and, more particularly, to foldable seat assemblies.
2. Disclosure Information
For various types of motor vehicles, it is often desirable to provide a movable seating arrangement in the rows behind the driver's seat to increase the cargo capacity of the vehicle. Due to suspension packaging constraints, a third row seating assembly is often mounted on an upper portion of a vehicle floor, while the forward seats are mounted on a lower portion of the vehicle floor. To create a level load floor, some third row foldable seats include mechanisms that move a portion of the seat forward and downward over the lower portion of the floor to create a flat load floor. However, these third row seats are often positioned forward near the forward edge of the upper portion of the floor to allow this motion. This placement generally compromises the available leg room between the second and third row seats to an unacceptable level. The only known alternative is to provide removable third row seats, which is undesirable due to their bulk and weight.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a foldable seat assembly which could significantly increase the forward displacement of the seat bottom cushion in moving the seating assembly from the upright seating position to the folded position.